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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24938674">How to Hang Out During a Quarantine</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/silvensei/pseuds/silvensei'>silvensei</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Stand Still Stay Silent</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Language Barrier, Possession, Post-Adventure 1, Sharing a Body, Vignettes, accidentally developed more plot than intended, comedy with pseudo plot thread, during the quarantine, now it's like, which was none at all, written as platonic but honestly you could probs take it as romantic if you wanted, y'know. the way cool kids hang</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 07:22:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>10,522</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24938674</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/silvensei/pseuds/silvensei</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Why don’t you come hang out in my head again? Then at least we’d be able to talk during the day.”</p><p>Lalli didn’t grace that with a reaction. “I told you, I don’t know how that happened.”</p><p>“Then let’s figure it out! Then at least we’d be productive while stuck here by helping you learn a new mage thing. Plus you won’t get seasick in my head.”</p><p>He pursed his lips. That’s all Emil saw before the dream suddenly popped and dropped him in his house. Alone. He huffed. So much for making tomorrow different from every other day on this ship.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lalli Hotakainen &amp; Emil Västerström</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>65</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Writing about a quarantine <em>during</em> a quarantine: Coincidence?? Yeah, actually, because I only read this comic this month.</p><p>This was going to be a oneshot of a series of vignettes, but it's getting longer than intended, so I compromised and made the first couple sections into a chapter. Also gosh, I have been sitting on the New Work page for over an hour trying to come up with a title, just take it.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I'm so bored!"</p><p>
  <em>Plunk.</em>
</p><p>While Lalli watched his bobber bob on the water and said nothing, his companion flopped back onto the dock. "I don't mean with the fishing," Emil elaborated, "even if it isn't the most exciting thing in the world. It’s this quarantine. There's only so much you can do alone in a glass box for a month."</p><p>It was quiet again. Emil didn’t leave. He was expecting a conversation. "You seem to be handling it okay," Lalli eventually said.</p><p>"Yeah, I <em>seem</em> to, but it's only so I don't encourage Sigrun's complaining. She's been flipping out since day two. It's only day eleven, and she was on the floor narrating her memoir like she was on her deathbed! As soon as I mention I'm also bored, she's going to try and rope me into starting a coup."</p><p>So that's what their captain was moaning about earlier. He tuned most of the waking world out these days, knowing no one for kilometres spoke Finnish, but overly-dramatic prose was recognizable in any language.</p><p>"But it must be even worse for you, right?" Emil prodded. He swayed his fishing pole to and fro, giving himself something to watch other than the sky. "No Finns around. Probably no books, either, and I can't be called a conversationalist with my poor collection of words. Not gonna be fluent any time soon, either...."</p><p>"Mmh."</p><p>"Gee, thanks." </p><p>"Why?" </p><p>"Uh. That was sarcastic." </p><p>"No, stupid. Why bring up the language thing now?" Lalli spared him a glance before propping his chin in his hand, settling to watch the water. "It's not new. I've had to deal with it since the beginning of this dumb job." </p><p>Emil opened his mouth to point out the obvious difference between then and now before he stopped. He bit his lip. It was still too soon to bring up Tuuri. She wasn't just another Finn for Lalli to talk to. Emil couldn't reduce her to that. </p><p>And now it was depressing. Emil scowled at himself and dropped a hand over his face. He just wanted to do something different during this internment. They couldn't talk while awake, and lately Lalli hadn't been worth the effort of any type of communication, always lying under his cot. Not even <em>on</em> his cot. <em>Under</em> it. He’s done it before, but honestly, this guy…. But he was a guy that was an enigma, a teammate, and now also his friend, so he couldn’t in good conscience do nothing. But why did Finland have to go and be so different. Why couldn’t Lalli have learned another language—<em>any</em> other language. Why didn’t Emil learn Finnish in his posh academic days (although if he did study language, then it would’ve been Icelandic first…). Stupid languages, not being universal. At least the dream language seemed to be, thank the gods for that; he couldn’t even imagine how horribly their last ordeal would’ve gone if Lalli still spoke Finnish in his head.</p><p>He quickly swatted that nightmare away and focused on the thought before it by asking, “Why can we understand each other here?”</p><p>“It’s a dream,” Lalli stated. Emil was afraid for a moment that he was going to leave it there. “Dreams are thoughts and ideas anyway. I’m just saying ideas, and your mind is adapting them into something you’d understand. Don’t think about it too much,” he added quickly. “You’re not skilled enough to be aware like that in a dream. I’m still confused why you're here at all. You’re not a mage.”</p><p>“Yeah, I don’t know, either, but since I’m here, we might as well take advantage of it, right?” He sat up and leaned forward to see Lalli’s face past his hair. “Why don’t you come hang out in my head again? Then at least we’d be able to talk during the day.”</p><p>He didn’t grace that with a reaction. “I told you, I don’t know how that happened.”</p><p>“Then let’s figure it out! Then at least we’d be productive while stuck here by helping you learn a new mage thing. Plus you won’t get seasick in my head.”</p><p>Lalli pursed his lips. That’s all he saw before the dream suddenly popped and dropped Emil in his house. Alone. He huffed. So much for making tomorrow different. </p>
<hr/><p>“So how was your day?”</p><p><em>Plunk</em>.</p><p>They both watched Lalli’s fishhook sink through the water. “Boring,” said Lalli. “Fine. I’ll try that out-of-body thing again.”</p><p>Emil beamed. “Really?!”</p><p>“But if I get stuck again, it’s your fault.”</p><p>“Sure, yeah, that’s fair.” He cleared his throat and wrangled his excitement to a more respectable level. “So what should I do? Should I do anything?”</p><p>“I have no idea! I don’t even know where to start!” Lalli yanked the fishing pole back and recast the line out as far as he could. “The giant knocked me out of my head back then, but I rarely leave my space intentionally. And then how I found your dream, I don’t know. Maybe just because you were close.”</p><p>“So you can’t just…leave your dream and walk to mine?” He quirked his head. “Is that not how it works? There isn’t one dream world?”</p><p>“There is, but….” He grumbled, mulling over how much he actually wanted to explain. “That’s what the dumb Icelander does: He tramples through dreams all the time. It’s more dangerous for me. Finnish mages normally don’t wander much, but on top of that, I….” Scrunching his nose, he muttered, “I didn’t finish that part of training….”</p><p>
  <em>…Plunk.</em>
</p><p>Emil’s line didn’t land where he intended, but it wasn’t like they were catching real fish. “No aimless wandering, then,” he summed up. “What if I invite you? I’ll go open the door, set a plate for you at the table—y’know, things you’d do when a guest is coming. Maybe that’ll help you find it again.”</p><p>“That’s another thing: Usually only mages are strong enough to have carved-out spaces in the dreamscape. I can’t see regular people’s dreams, which should include yours. They’re too….” Lalli hummed. He held out a flat hand that he wobbled back and forth before opening his mouth, but whatever he was going to say was lost when the dream broke, Lalli’s face being replaced by a wall of picture frames.</p><p>“Supper’s ready, dear!”</p><p>Emil felt himself grit his teeth and groan before he shook himself out of it. “Set a place for a friend that’s coming, please,” he called out as he got up from the table, “so long as he doesn’t get lost on the way, that is.”</p>
<hr/><p>“It didn’t work.”</p><p>
  <em>Pa-plunk.</em>
</p><p>Lalli looked over after Emil also cast his line. Emil gave him a shrug. “Might as well. Why not, right? Why is it fishing anyway? I’ve never been fishing before. Is this what your dream looks like?”</p><p>“No. But I guess it’s similar. I wouldn’t mind fishing in my space.”</p><p>“It makes sense that it would be a ‘you’ thing.” </p><p>They sat for a while. Emil kicked his legs over the water, watching the dappled light on his pants. “It’s peaceful,” he said. “It’s nice, especially after the noise Sigrun was making today.”</p><p>“Was Mikkel cheating at their game?”</p><p>“He was, but she found out that he knew she was also cheating, so she made them find a new game. Which she’s probably still cheating at.”</p><p>“Mm.” </p><p>Lalli’s bobber dipped. He whipped his pole back and caught the line, lifting his catch out of the lake. At least it was a fish this time, even if its fins looked a little feathery. He threw it back without mentioning it to Emil; the dream might break if he realized the flaws in it.</p><p>“So what next?” Emil asked. “You couldn’t find my house, I’m guessing?”</p><p>Lalli shook his head. “Last time, there was a light from the doorway, but not last night.”</p><p>“Hmm.” Setting his pole on the dock, Emil pulled his legs into a crouch. “How about I just bring you with me?”</p><p>“How are—”</p><p>Emil hooked both his arms around Lalli’s and stood, almost picking him up off the dock. “Hey, dream!” he shouted at the sky. “There’s no birdsong, and the leaves are moving without any wind! That’s wrong!”</p><p>Lalli barely got to his feet before everything disappeared, dropping him haphazardly half on a couch and half on Emil, arms still interlocked. He blinked and looked around at the familiar dining room, the air carrying the smells and sounds of an active kitchen. Emil blew his bangs out of his face and smiled. “See? Not so hard.”  </p><p>A wave of panic hit his thoughts. Lalli ripped his arm free and ran to the doorway, head whipping to take in his surroundings. There, at the end of the hallway, was a windowed door, more ornate than the others. He grabbed the knob and was thrown off balanced when it easily swung open. The other side was dark, but it was a regular nighttime darkness, with vague shapes of buildings and pinpricks of lights. Across the way, off in the distance, he could make out trees—a glen, lit from within by muted golds.</p><p>“What was that?” Catching up to him, Emil peeked around the door frame. “Looks fine to me. That was a bit rude, running off as soon as you got here. What’s up?”</p><p>The tension abated. That looked like his alcove. “I had to make sure I could leave,” he explained simply, closing the door. </p><p>“Emil?” a voice asked. “Is someone at the door?”</p><p>Emil called back, “A friend is staying for dinner!”</p><p>“Really? Did your father—”</p><p>“It’s <em>fine!”</em> he snapped. Then he closed his eyes and smacked his face lightly. “If it gets too late, Dad said he should stay the night, too!”</p><p>“Oh, lovely!” </p><p>Emil led them back to the table, hands squished into his too-round cheeks. “Can you teach me how to…not do that anymore?” he asked. “It’s kind of embarrassing, now that I’m aware of it….”</p><p>“Acting like a demanding child?”</p><p>He wrinkled his nose. “Yes, that.” He gestured to himself as he dropped into a chair; Lalli took the seat across from him. “This is from a few years ago, when I was a sheltered kid that didn’t know better. How do I be more like myself? My, uh, <em>now</em> self?”</p><p>Over dinner, Lalli recounted basic lucid dreaming tips he hadn’t thought about in years, Emil nodding along with intense focus. Seemingly every pause he could, Lalli reminded him that this was what Finnish mages learned, maybe it wouldn’t work for others, although having a dream stable enough for an outsider was already an interesting development. Once he started talking in circles, he argued that it wasn’t something someone could learn in one night, so it wasn’t that important, so don’t worry about it, and that was that. Lalli then focused on the food (he had rarely had dream food; it was tasty) while Emil pointed out what each dish was, providing its name in Swedish (usually accompanied by an anecdote) and asking if there was a Finnish equivalent (“There isn't?! How??”)</p><p>By the time they were long finished with dessert, they had fallen into a calm back-and-forth of cultural trivia. Emil leaned back and stretched. This was the longest conversation he’d had with Lalli, he thought; perhaps they had found an ideal mix of ‘impersonal’ and ‘national pride’ that made it easier for the quiet boy to talk.</p><p>He yawned, and Lalli’s sentence trailed off. Emil waved it away, saying, “Sorry, I’m listening.”</p><p>“You’re waking up.”</p><p>“Waking up?” He stifled another yawn. “Yawning usually means…falling asleep….”</p><p>He only meant to rest his eyes for a second, but next thing he knew, he was blinking blearily up at a gray metal ceiling. Ah. Back to another riveting day in quarantine. What day was it? Wasn’t it the halfway mark today? Not that that’d change anything. What if he could do what Lalli did and just sleep through the day? He rolled over, burrowing into his pillow, ready to go back to sleep. He caught sight of Lalli in the next cell over, still fast asleep, unconscious to the world…. Lalli was…unconscious….</p><p>Pushing himself as far away as his arms could take him from his pillow, Emil squinted, trying to recall his dream. Where had he heard that before? Remembering dreams helps something—helps being lucid. Lucid dreaming. Where did he hear that—Lalli told him. But Lalli’s unconscious. Because he did the thing—</p><p>“Oh!” It clicked. “Lalli?”</p><p>
  <em>…Yeah?</em>
</p><p>He let out a breath and smiled, falling back onto his cot. “Hey, there!”</p><p><em>Wha— I just saw you! Don't be weird about this already, I </em>will<em> leave—</em></p><p>“No no no, it’s fine!” Emil waved his hands above him. (Where should he direct gestures? He’ll just keep talking to the ceiling for now.) “It took me a minute to remember my dream, is all! Forgot you were here!” </p><p>
  <em>Is that why you didn’t realize it was me for a whole day last time?</em>
</p><p>“Probably. I think. I don’t know, I hadn’t heard voices in my head that weren’t my own thoughts before.”</p><p>
  <em>What a sane thing to say.</em>
</p><p>“You know what I mean; apparently you hear troll voices all the time!”</p><p>“Ahem.”</p><p>Emil looked to his left where a woman in a hazmat suit was giving him an unamused look from the other side of the glass. “Talking to yourself about ‘troll voices’ two weeks after being picked up from the silent world is not a promising sign,” she warned. </p><p>“A-ah….” Emil rubbed his neck with a shaky smile. “It’s fine, it’s nothing, just…going a bit stir-crazy in here, you know?”</p><p>She looked unconvinced, but she walked away. </p><p>Now self-conscious, he rolled onto his side, away from the glass wall and toward Lalli’s prone form. “We didn’t have to worry about the whole ‘talking to thin air’ factor last time,” he said, lowering his voice.</p><p><em>Correction: </em>I <em>still don’t have to worry about it.</em></p><p>“I guess that’s true.”</p><p>His head was quiet for a moment. <em>I don’t have to be here—</em></p><p>“Nope, you stay right there. You’re my guest. Besides, once Sigrun starts making a racket, no one will be able to hear me.” Emil wrapped his arms around his pillow and found a neutral spot on the floor to talk to. “Just stay and chat for a bit, then you can go back and mope under your bed for the rest of the day.”</p><p>
  <em>I don’t mope—</em>
</p><p>“What was the rest of that blueberry story? Did Tuuri really like them that much?”</p><p>Lalli grumbled. Then he sighed. <em>…She did really like blueberries…. Yeah, it was berry season. She didn’t want to go alone, but Onni was busy, and her friends were hunting that day, so she knocked not on the front door, on my </em>window<em>. Ugh, it was so early….</em></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>My furnace of a 45lb dog has been lying on first my leg and now my side/back (like me leaning forward and to the right at 45deg angles and her with her chin stretched up on my back) on this hot June night, and nothing makes me long for a Scandinavian winter more.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Emil propped his elbows on his desk. He cradled his chin in his hands, watching the sleeping (sleeping?) boy on the other side of the glass. Honestly, he’s probably seen Lalli asleep for just as long as he’s been awake.</p><p>
  <em>…I’m really thin.</em>
</p><p>“Hah!” Emil bit his lip to smother another laugh; he had already drawn enough stares for one day. “Yeah, dude, you’re a twig! You never noticed?”</p><p>
  <em>This is different than looking in a mirror.</em>
</p><p>“If I poked you too hard, I could snap your arm in half.”</p><p>
  <em>I run! It’s my job! Therefore, I have a runner’s build!</em>
</p><p>“Yeah, about that: Do you get your energy from magic? ‘Cause it doesn’t look like there’s any muscle on those bones.”</p><p>
  <em>Let’s see you run through an entire night, then!</em>
</p><p>Emil’s laughter calmed. Was there any sign that Lalli’s body was empty? Did he look paler? With his defined cheekbones and straight hair, Lalli normally looked gaunt, but was it his <em>usual</em> gaunt? <em>Was he— </em>okay, yes, he was breathing, it’s just slow. Emil tilted his head into one hand, dropping the other to tap on his bicep. “Should you be out of there for so long?” he asked.</p><p>
  <em>I’m not dead. My life force is still there. It’s just sleeping.</em>
</p><p>“But still…I don’t think it’s healthy.” Emil grimaced. “You were pretty sick when you woke up last time, though it <em>was</em> for a couple days. But because you’re so skinny, you don’t have a lot of fat to burn when you’re in a coma for so long….”</p><p>His head was quiet. “Sorry,” he said quickly, “that wasn’t a jab at you, I just don’t want you to get sick again.”</p><p>Still no answer.</p><p>“Lalli…?”</p><p>The body’s eyes opened. Emil jumped, catching his surprised yelp so it only came out as a squeak. Lalli smirked. He stretched his arms above his head, arching his back like a cat. “Lalli!” whined Emil, pressing a hand to his heart. “Gimme some warning before you leave like that! That scared me twice, back-to-back, in two very different ways.” His bangs fell in his face; he flicked them out of the way. “Doesn’t matter. Are you alright? Found your way back without a problem?”</p><p>Lalli stared at him before answering with a chain of indecipherable Finnish.</p><p>“A-ah, right.” He held up a thumb, alternating between a thumbs up and thumbs down while he scrounged up enough Finnish to ask, “How are you?”</p><p>Lalli sat up and cracked his neck. He gave Emil a thumbs up. “Good,” he said in Swedish.</p><p>Emil smiled. “Good!”</p>
<hr/><p>“There are really no books in Finnish here?”</p><p>
  <em>Nope.</em>
</p><p>“Dang.” Emil got up from crouching in front of his bookshelf, hands on his hips. “They look like they were randomly distributed between the cells, but no Finnish books in either of ours isn’t promising.”</p><p>
  <em>No big loss. I don’t read much anyway.</em>
</p><p>“But it’s the perfect thing to do right now. Just look at Sigrun.” He looked across the pathway at their teammates. Mikkel had now put a limit on how many games per day he was willing to play with Sigrun, instead wanting some peace and quiet to peruse his own bookshelf of assorted hand-me-downs. At first, she tried pestering Reynir for entertainment, but that got nowhere fast, so she resorted to also picking up more reading. The ship’s crew have been all the happier because of it. “I don’t think she’s been this mellow the entire time we’ve known her.”</p><p>Lalli hummed.<em> It’s ironic that we spent months retrieving books from wastelands, but we’re only reading anything now.</em></p><p>He chuckled. “She used to preach to Mikkel that the Danes should get their noses out of books, and yet here we are. She looks like she’s gonna cry. Man, she’s hooked.”</p><p>He heard a quiet sound in his head, somewhere between a scoff and a short breath. Was that…a <em>laugh?</em> Surely, he’s heard Lalli laugh before…but <em>has he?</em></p><p>Reinvigorated by the grin tugging at his lips, Emil grabbed his current book from his desk and jumped onto his cot. “Alright, the mother language it is, then,” he declared, flipping through to the beginning. “I found this one yesterday, and it’s not bad. I’m not too far; I can start over.”</p><p>
  <em>But it’s in Swedish.</em>
</p><p>“Yeah? And I’m speaking Swedish right now?”</p><p><em>No, that’s— </em>He huffed. <em>Your eyes are just windows. I’m still reading it directly as if I were standing next to you; it’s not running through the dream to get translated.</em></p><p>“…Okay?” He had to think it through again before he got it. “Okay, that’s an easy fix, isn’t it? I’ll just read it aloud.”</p><p>
  <em>…I mean. That’ll work. But are you any good at it?</em>
</p><p>“Dunno. Guess we’ll find out!”</p>
<hr/><p>“Hey, Mikkel?”</p><p>“Mm?”</p><p>“Have I lost it, or has he lost it?”</p><p>“Yes, Emil has been talking to himself.”</p><p>Sigrun pressed her forehead into the wall, looking past Mikkel. Emil’s mouth was moving, and his expression changed in reaction to something, but he was too quiet to hear. She narrowed her eyes. “I didn’t think Pipsqueak would be the first to crack. My money was on Braid Boy.”</p><p>Mikkel shrugged, but he didn’t have time to tell her that talking aloud for entertainment during a semi-solitary quarantine was perfectly rational before she shouted, “Hey, Blondie, who ya talkin’ to?”</p><p>The boy jumped. It took a second for him to turn toward them and an even longer moment of staring for him to answer. “Ummm…,” he said. His hands fidgeted together. “Okay, do you remember what I said happened when Lalli and I got separated from the group?”</p><p>“That you got brainwashed by trolls?”</p><p>“Nonono no no, not that. How I was able to talk to Lalli in my head. We wanted to chat, so he’s, ah….” He tapped his head. “Hanging out.”</p><p>Sigrun tilted her head. Lalli was asleep right behind Emil. She leaned closer to Mikkel and whispered, “Yeah, he’s definitely lost it.”</p><p>“No, I—!” Emil threw his head back and groaned. He said something to the ceiling before putting his palms on the wall and pointing to his eyes. “Alright, look, look at this.”</p><p><em>Yeah, yeah, you have clear blue eyes, we all know you’re a beautiful Swede, </em>was what Sigrun wanted to say, but any and all sarcasm died on her tongue when, like a light switch, his pupils lit up an incandescent aquamarine. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” she laughed, pressing as close to the glass as possible. “Holy shit, hi, my little scout! Fancy meeting you here!”</p><p>Vindicated, Emil pushed off the wall and crossed his arms. “He can’t talk out loud, it’s just me.”</p><p>“Emil, does that make you a mage now?!”</p><p>“What? Lalli’s still the mage, I can’t do anything!”</p><p>Mikkel heard tapping to his right. Reynir waved from his cell. “What’s going on over there? I keep hearing Lalli’s name.”</p><p>“Sounds like they got bored, so Lalli possessed Emil.”</p><p>Reynir’s eyes widened. “Whaaaat? He can <em>do</em> that?? Ask them how, Mikkel, ask Lalli how he did that, please, Mikkel, I wanna learn how to do that!”</p><p>“Mikkel!” Sigrun blocked Reynir from view. “The ghost mage keeps staring at me with those glowy eyes, and it’s starting to get creepy! Help make him stop!”</p><p>“<em>Mikkel…!”</em></p><p>Mikkel leveled a look at both of them. He didn’t reward them with acknowledgement and returned to his book.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Short one because this is where the cutoff had to go, the next section is longer than all three of these</p><p>And yup, Lalli got back just fine this time! He's not the one the 'accidentally developed plot' tags allude to</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>whoops, got ridiculously into Kamen Rider for two weeks, I'm back now</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“So I’ve been thinking….”</p><p>
  <em>That’s dangerous.</em>
</p><p>“You’re in my head, right?”</p><p>
  <em>Yeah?</em>
</p><p>“And I’m in my head.”</p><p>
  <em>…Yeah?</em>
</p><p>“Well, I was wondering….” Emil drummed his fingers on his stomach, watching what has become his favorite spot on the ceiling over his cot. “Can you…possess me?”</p><p>
  <em>…Isn’t that what I’m doing?</em>
</p><p>“No, like…control my body.”</p><p>Lalli scoffed. <em>If I could do that, it would’ve made it way easier to keep you from wandering into troll nests.</em></p><p>“But, like—” He pursed his lips. “You’re in my head, and by that, we mean sitting in my dream—which is still a thing even though I’m awake right now? I don’t entirely get that, but you’re there, and I’m—” He waved his hands. “…Out here? I guess? But what if you were out here, and I was in there? Does that make sense?”</p><p>No response.</p><p>“Like that thing you did, where you pulled me into the dream so I wouldn’t open the door for the dusklings. Is it possible to leave me there so you could go back to the outside world instead of me?”</p><p>
  <em>…Don’t know.</em>
</p><p>Emil paused. It wasn’t a no. “Would you…want to try?”</p><p>
  <em>That’s a pretty stupid thing to ask, Emil. Who would want to give up their body? It’s already dumb to let someone else into your head, but to give them control of your mortal life?</em>
</p><p>He could imagine the reprimanding expression on Lalli’s face. He groaned and dropped an arm over his eyes. “I know it’s not smart, and just thinking about it makes me queasy, but what if it works? If you were the one in control when you first got stuck in my head, then I wouldn’t have been tempted by the trolls, I wouldn’t have alerted all the dusklings, and maybe you would’ve been able to use your magic. You would’ve been way more useful than me.”</p><p>
  <em>But it ended up fine.</em>
</p><p>“It almost wasn’t! Gods, it was close!”</p><p><em>Where is this coming from? </em>Lalli’s voice had dulled its edge.</p><p>“It’s just—” Emil sighed. “I know I’m the cleanser, I’m the fire guy, but what use has that been? It’s nothing that Sigrun couldn’t have brute forced on her own. Mikkel is already the miscellaneous man. Even Reynir found a job making wards. I don’t have a role. I’m just an extra mouth to feed. But you’re useful. You’re awesome! And I want to help. And if I can be a translator, or…or an extra body to use if you’re hurt, then….”</p><p>
  <em>The mission’s over. We’re done.</em>
</p><p>“But our lives aren’t. What if you get injured in the future and—h-heh—need an extra pair of hands?” His attempted smile was weak.</p><p>His head was quiet.</p><p>Emil bit his lip, pressing his arm into his eyes. What was he doing? He just bared his soul, both figuratively <em>and</em> literally. That was stupid. Lalli was right: Only an idiot would willingly give up their autonomy. It was much too personal, more intimate than any two beings should be, and just plain <em>unnatural.</em> It made him uncomfortable to even think about, but…he wanted to help….</p><p>Noise muttered through his thoughts before it cleared into Lalli’s voice warning, <em>Possession is bad news…. Possession is bad, bad news….</em></p><p>He held his breath. Still not a no. “Then don’t think of it as possession. You’re not stealing control; I’m letting you borrow it for a little bit. I’m helping out a friend.”</p><p>Silence.</p><p>“…You know what, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—”</p><p>A pressure hit his head, turning the black behind his eyelids to a blinding white for a moment before clearing into Lalli’s irate face leaning over him, Lalli’s palms on his temples. “What is <em>wrong</em> with you?” he barked. “What idiot cares so little about themself that they’ll give up their own <em>body?</em> If I take it over, I could embarrass and torment you while you wouldn’t be able to do a thing. I could kill someone, and all the blame would be on your head. I could break your bones or make it so you wouldn’t even have a body to go back to! You would be entirely at my mercy! Did you even consider that?”</p><p>“I…. Yeah. I did. And yeah, it scares me.” Emil tried breaking eye contact, but with his head held in place, he couldn’t look that far away. “But I trust you. You wouldn’t do any of that. And I still believe having this as a back-up plan is worth the discomfort if it means it might save one or both of our lives someday.”</p><p>Lalli was quiet. He was quiet for so long that Emil had to look back at him. His expression was even more unreadable upside down.</p><p>Suddenly, the pressure on his head increased. Lalli leaned away, held his gaze for a moment, and, in a flash of light, disappeared.</p><p>“Lalli?” Emil sat up, the cushions under him depressing. He was alone in the room—also he was in his dining room, or a pale, ethereal facsimile of it. A growing unease opened in his gut. He called out again to no response.</p><p>He hissed and rubbed his eyes. They felt weird. Not uncomfortable, just…weird. Like they were warm. Ugh, he hated that that was a thought in his brain. He also hated that in the span of a blink, his reflection appeared in front of him, with an unfamiliar expression and piercing glowing eyes. He yelped and tried to look away, but no matter where he turned, the image stayed constant.</p><p>The reflection tilted its chin down. “Possession,” Emil’s voice said, “is dangerous. And very stupid. Lose your body and you’re dead to the world <em>and</em> a risk to others at the same time.”</p><p>“Lalli…?”</p><p>The expression turned livid. “You <em>moron!”</em> he snarled. “Are you expecting someone <em>else</em> in your body?!”</p><p>“No, I—!” Oh no. “Just— Standard response—!” Oh <em>no</em>. He <em>hated</em> this.</p><p>Out of his control, his body propped a forearm on the bathroom mirror and leaned forward, eyes still sharp and foreign. He couldn’t feel anything, and seeing his body move without him made his stomach knot. He had expected some sort of disconnect and dissociation, but <em>oh no,</em> he underestimated the effect it would have on him. How can Lalli be so <em>normal</em> about this?</p><p>Lalli looked in the mirror, stare jumping left and right between eyes. “Listen,” he said. “…Thank you.”</p><p>…Eh?</p><p>“It was dumb and careless, but you still trusted me enough to put your life in my hands.”</p><p>“Well, that’s not exactly what I—”</p><p>“Just shut up and accept it. No one has ever put that much faith in me before.”</p><p>Emil rubbed the back of his neck and smiled. The fact that his reflection didn’t mimic the action was <em>not fun</em>, but ignoring that, he said, “Well, then, you’re welcome! You’ve saved our bacon so many times that it’s the least I can do.”</p><p>“I doubt that. Now here’s why it was dumb and careless: you’re becoming a medium.”</p><p>“I’m doing what now?”</p><p>“Or not a real medium because you’re not a mage, but I don’t know what else to call it. Mediums channel spirits, which—” He gestured to the body he currently occupied. “Your space is accessible to outsiders when you dream. Your space continues to exist to house outsiders when you’re awake. And now, an outsider can assume command of your body. This sounds like all the makings of a fledgling medium, except—!” He jabbed the mirror with a finger. “You. Have. No. Defense. You can’t protect yourself from spirits. Normally, they only bother mages, but now, if they find out your body can be possessed, they’ll have a reason to flock to you. And some won’t ask nicely.”</p><p>Emil’s stomach dropped. Does that mean one day, he could wake up staring into a mirror, not knowing who was behind his glowing eyes? He gulped. “Could you, uh, stop with the staring, please?”</p><p>Lalli held his position for a moment more before his arm dropped. He left the bathroom and slumped against the door, watching a distant spot on the floor. “I’m…sorry,” he said. “I think I’m the reason you’re at risk.”</p><p>“What?” Emil shook his head. “That’s ridiculous. This was all <em>my</em> idea.”</p><p>“No. My first stay in your head was all you needed to start being conditioned as a medium.”</p><p>“But….” He was chastised, thanked, chastised again, and apologized to in a matter of minutes, on top of this new horror Lalli presented him with. Too fast. This was too much information to process. “Did…you know…?”</p><p>His vision slowly panned as Lalli slid down the door. He sat for a moment before falling over onto the floor. “Sort of,” he admitted, Emil’s voice listless and resigned. “I thought meeting in the fishing dream was just by chance at first. It happens. But after meeting every night, I realized it’s because your dreamscape has become too open, letting you wander out and others wander in. But I thought you were fine. I thought a few shared dreams and sometimes a headmate wouldn’t be enough to jump from no magic to mediumship. And now look where we are.” He opened one of Emil’s hands in front of his face. “I was so sure it wouldn’t work. Stupid, <em>stupid</em>.”</p><p>First things first: Emil laid down on his dream couch, copying Lalli so that his sideways viewpoint made more sense to his addled brain.</p><p>So…what, people can’t normally be possessed, but now he can? Because he subconsciously acclimated to it? Because Lalli had lived in his head? Because Lalli was almost killed for saving his life and needed his help in order to save his own? Because Emil had wanted to help his grieving, isolated friend the only way he knew how? Through something seemingly only he could do? With the initial shock worn off, Emil found that he felt…rather neutral about the situation. So he was at higher risk of spirit trouble now. So what? After the adventure they had just had, he was just glad to be alive.</p><p>Or maybe he was numb to it because the shock hadn’t actually worn off yet?</p><p>Whatever.</p><p>“Emil?”</p><p>“I’m still here. I’m just….” He waved a hand in circles even though he didn’t think Lalli could see it. “Absorbing all this. I didn’t even believe in magic and the supernatural until a month ago, you know.”</p><p>“Why are you so calm? You’re not the calm one.”</p><p>“I don’t know. Maybe you know something I don’t about the whole, um, medium thing, but<em> I</em> know that if I ask myself if I would change any of the things I’ve done up to now, the answer is no. We’re alive, and we’re safe, so I’m satisfied.”</p><p>Lalli curled up on the floor, crossing his arms and burrowing his chin under his collar. He was quiet; now Emil wished they were still in front of the mirror. Then he sighed and mumbled into his shirt, “Idiot….”</p><p>Good. A normal response.</p><p>Emil yawned. He may have been looking at the hard, cold floor from Lalli’s point of view, but the couch beneath him in his dream was soft and warm. He nuzzled into the cushion. It still wasn’t a regular bed, but it was the best he’d come across since leaving home. It was too good to be real. A dream come true….</p><hr/><p>Emil’s been quiet for a while.</p><p>Good. Maybe he realized how dumb he was.</p><p>How did he think having someone else in his head wouldn’t have consequences? Why would he want to help him so much that he’d offer to share his physical and mental personal space? How’d he even get it in his head that he could be useless in such a small party? Stupid Emil.</p><p>…But it still <em>was</em> Lalli’s fault. He’s the one that set up camp in Emil’s dream instead of looking harder for his own. And then he just <em>had</em> to let Emil rope him into coming back. Just to <em>talk.</em></p><p>Stupid.</p><p>Lalli glared at the base of the wall. It was a change from the ceilings and undersides of cots that he usually glared at. Normally, he couldn’t lie on his side without his joints digging into the ground, but Emil’s body didn’t have that problem. Curling into a ball on the floor wasn’t uncomfortable.</p><p>The reminder that he was possessing Emil’s body stirred up all the emotions he was trying to pack away: frustration, regret, sympathy, pity, survivor’s guilt, regular guilt—he smothered them again. He had spent the last however long trying to think through and get rid of them, but they’re still there. Loath as he was to admit it, he might have to apologize to Emil again to make them go away. Emil had said he was fine and didn’t blame him and was content with his life as it was, but he was too dumb to know what mediumship meant.</p><p>So Lalli would have to show him and see if he changed his mind.</p><p>“Hey.”</p><p>No response.</p><p>“You dumb Swede. Hey.”</p><p>No response.</p><p>
  <em>“Emil.”</em>
</p><p>Nope.</p><p>He fell asleep. After everything, Emil couldn’t even stay awake in his dream. Weakling. He’s going to get his body stolen the second he walks by a graveyard.</p><p>Lalli sat up. It took a few moments for Emil’s body to slough off the residual lethargy; his own would’ve been able to spring to its feet in no time. He pushed himself up, absently brushing off his sleeve as he opened the bathroom door and turned on the light. His hands hovered by his ears, ready to grab his head and shock Emil awake, but he looked in the mirror and stopped.</p><p>The right side of Emil’s hair was tangled and matted from lying on it, while the left was skewed out of place. But Emil’s hair always looked nice. Lalli was beginning to think Swedish hair just looked like that. He took in this rare image. Then he shook his head hard enough that his hair splayed out and looked again. It didn’t naturally fix itself; it got worse and fell in his face. He tried ruffling it with both hands, but it only went from matted to frizzy. Disappointed yet intrigued, he combed his bangs out of his eyes and behind his ears. It seemed like the only magic Emil had in him was his hair care routine.</p><p>Lalli turned from the mirror and left. No sense hurting them both just to wake Emil up. It wasn’t Emil’s fault that he wasn’t a mage, and no matter what he said, it also wasn’t his fault that he was a medium.</p><p>He almost went to lie under the cot, but he reconsidered and jumped on top, closing his eyes and waking up in Emil’s house. Just as suspected, the boy was nestled on the couch, lightly snoring.</p><p>Lalli eyed his hair. It had shifted from its usual style, but it still looked better than it did in the mirror.</p><p>He stepped quietly to the door and grabbed his cape from the coat tree, fastening it as he left. They could work something out later. Lalli needed to think.</p><hr/><p>He burrowed his face into his pillow. It wasn’t as comfortable as he remembered. Of course it had to be, there wasn’t another pillow. There was his couch. Wasn’t he on his couch? Oh, wait—</p><p>Emil sat up in his cell and flexed his hands. He released a breath, relieved that he could feel his chest move and his shoulders relax again. Then he looked over and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw eyes peeking over the neighboring mattress, watching him. Before he could get a sound out to ask what the heck he was doing watching him sleep, Lalli pointed at Emil’s head and mimed scrubbing his hair.</p><p>“Wh—” He furrowed his brow, blinking through the dregs of sleep and confusion.</p><p>Lalli picked up a lock of his hair and impatiently jabbed a finger at it.</p><p>Emil reached a hand up. When his fingers found a nest of tangles, he immediately grabbed his head. “What did you do to my hair?!” he almost shouted, already tugging through the worst of the knots with one hand and brushing the rest with the other. It was worse than normal bedhead. How long was he out??</p><p>Lalli gripped the edge of the cot and stared harder.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>"EMIL, STOP. STOP TALKING ABOUT GETTING POSSESSED."<br/>"im free real estate"<br/>"YOU'RE NOT FREE REAL ESTATE"</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>holy cannoli, gang, Kamen Rider Build is so good, why did America take Super Sentai to make Power Rangers when Kamen Rider is where it's at</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When it happened next, Emil was so engrossed in his book that he almost forgot about the whole situation.</p><p>It also wasn’t at the forefront of his mind because neither was Lalli. Lalli was in his own head, lying facedown in his own bed, and Emil hadn’t heard a peep out of him in a while.</p><p>Emil quickly flipped the page, not wanting to waste a second. He had picked the first book with a title he could read from the shelf and boy, was luck on his side. Finally, something he could talk to Mikkel about.</p><p>And so, when he went from lounging on his recliner mattress to being flung back so hard into a couch that he bounced off the backrest and barely caught the cushions to save himself from crashing to the floor, saying he was caught off-guard was an understatement.</p><p>He scrambled back, frantically looking around, his voice locked in his throat from the shock. He could barely form a coherent thought<em> (It— it’s— couch— dream—?!)</em> before his vision blinked back to his cell. Only his vision, though; his hands were still pressed into couch cushions and most definitely <em>not</em> thumbing through his book like his eyes were telling him. “L-Lalli?!” he squeaked. “Lalli, for the love of all that is holy, that better be you!”</p><p>“And how would you know?”</p><p>Ohhhh, he did not want to hear his own voice say that today. “H-heh,” he breathed to distract himself from the growing knot in his gut. “If you wanted to hang out, you could’ve said so.”</p><p>“Listen.” The book snapped shut. “You’re weak. Your head is open while you’re awake, and your body doesn’t even try to keep you in charge. So you have to get better.”</p><p>“Wh— Better at what?”</p><p>He crossed his arms. “Kick me out. Take your body back yourself. I’m not leaving.”</p><p>Emil stiffened. “But…how do I do that?”</p><p>“I don’t know! Figure something out!”</p><p>He sunk into the couch.</p><p>He could barely stay lucid in his dream. How was he supposed to fend off possession?</p>
<hr/><p>He yawned. He could lie down, just for a quick moment, just to rest his eyes. Just a second—</p><p>Emil slapped his face. Nuh-uh. No sleeping. This was a dream and he needed to remember that and stay awake. But how long has it been? Hours? The whole day? It felt like forever, and he’d made no progress. It would help if he knew <em>anything</em> about what he was looking for or how to do any mental, magic, medium stuff, but he was thrown into the deep end without knowing what water even was.</p><p>Man, that was a clever metaphor. Good job, Emil. Thanks, Emil.</p><p>He caught another yawn by slapping a hand over his mouth and jumping to his feet, pacing in front of the couch, rolling his shoulders and neck as he went. “Lalliiii,” he whined, “how long has it been?”</p><p>“Like forty-five minutes.”</p><p>He groaned. Damn dream time perception distortion…thing, or whatever.</p><p>It’s not like Lalli was any help. Despite holding absolute command of his body, he was doing nothing with it; he was curled up on Emil’s cot, staring at seemingly nothing—or staring at <em>literally</em> nothing, which Emil knew as a <em>fact</em> because he was forced to <em>share the same eyes. </em></p><p>Gods, okay, let’s start over again. What was he doing? Trying to get back to his body. Why? Because Lalli possessed him. Why did he do that? He had no idea. So he could practice…whatever this was. (Was it technically an exorcism?!) Lalli thought he needed to. Was possession a real threat? He paused. Was Lalli worried about his future wellbeing? He shook his head; it wasn’t important. How did Lalli possess him? As far as he knew, he broke into Emil’s dream house, pulled him into the dream, and took his place outside. Then, by that logic, he just had to do the same thing.</p><p>Okay. How? Lalli had pulled him by the head before. Emil swung an arm in front of him, but there was only air. Of course there was, Lalli wasn’t <em>there.</em> He needed to grab Lalli’s…mind or soul or…something.</p><p>Who was he kidding. He had no idea how to do that. He had no clue where to even <em>start</em>. He groaned and rubbed his eyes. They were still warm, a fact he was desperately trying to ignore because it was so damn <em>weird</em>. They’re probably glowing, too, from whatever magic let him see outside—wait.</p><p>Lalli always made his eyes glow, so maybe, if warmth equals magic equals Lalli, he could find him like that. Somehow. Emil sat on the couch and held his face in his hands, eyes shut. Focus on the feeling <em>(ew…)</em>. Try to find its source, or a similar sensation. Or anything, really; his expectations were <em>so</em> low.</p><p>Where was the heat coming from…?</p><p>He scrunched his eyes.</p><p>He found nothing.</p><p>He sighed and almost yawned again. Staying awake was the biggest problem, something made harder by Lalli doing nothing. Was that the point? Was he staring into space as an extra challenge? C’mon, at least look around, make it more interesting than ‘not at all.’</p><p>Lalli looked up at the ceiling, but before Emil could be grateful, he shot up. “How did you do that?”</p><p>“Do what?”</p><p>“Move my eyes.”</p><p>“What? That wasn’t you?”</p><p>“No! What did you do?”</p><p>“I don’t know! Nothing?”</p><p>“Do it again!”</p><p><em>“Oi!”</em> a third voice called. Lalli twisted around toward Sigrun waving an arm over her head. “You’re being weird again! What are you kiddos doing now?”</p><p>Lalli looked away and asked Emil, “What did she say?”</p><p>“But you’re— You know what? I’m not gonna ask. She asked what we’re doing.”</p><p>He turned back and narrowed his eyes. Then he pointed to himself and said, “I’m Lalli.”</p><p>Sigrun pursed her lips and nodded. “Ahhh-huh. I don’t understand.”</p><p>Emil didn’t have to translate that one before Lalli scoffed. “Is it possible for Norwegians to comprehend even basic Finnish? Seems not.”</p><p>He also didn’t have time to complain about how that’s a pretty rude thing to say with his voice (and to their captain no less). Sigrun crossed her arms and shifted her weight to one leg. “I’m just hearing a lot of gibberish outta you. Didn’t think you knew that much gibberish. Lalli rubbing off on you?” She squinted, then her nose pressed to the glass. “Hey, now, hang on! I know those eyes! <em>And</em> the condescension on that face! Hey, Mikkel, check this out!”</p><p>Mikkel glanced over from his book, and from between the two of them, Emil saw Reynir pop up from his bed, chattering something with wide eyes, desperate for entertainment.</p><p>“Nope.” Lalli ignored them and leaned his back against the wall, folding his hands in his lap. Emil’s vision cut out, leaving him with the view of his dining table from his couch, then he jumped when Lalli stood up next to him and said in his own voice, “You can deal with them.”</p>
<hr/><p>“I don’t know what else to try.”</p><p>“Just do what you did before but better.”</p><p>“Gee, why didn’t I think of that.”</p><p>One leg swinging off the couch, fist bouncing off the back cushion, Emil lay on his back, stuck in his dream while Lalli again did nothing with his body. This time, he was sitting on the cot, hugging his knees to his chest. Still staring at the wall, though.</p><p>Lalli didn’t answer. He laid his cheek on his knee.</p><p>Emil sighed.</p><p>Even if he was on the right track by tracking the source of his glowing eyes back to Lalli, it wasn’t a lot to go on. Scratch that: it was barely anything to go on, considering he had no idea how to find something that didn’t physically exist. Couldn’t he get more of a hint? Some training wheels, please? How about a feeling in his hand or chest or something, because who in the world ever <em>feels</em> with their <em>eyes?</em></p><p>He rubbed his face. “Hey, Lalli? Can you do magic like this?”</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>“Maybe it’ll help me know what I’m looking for? I don’t know, I’ve barely got anything to work with here. Something stronger than the eye thing would help.”</p><p>“Magic isn’t something to be toyed with without purpose.”</p><p>Emil huffed. “I’d call this a purpose….”</p><p>Lalli didn’t say anything for a moment before he mumbled, “I guess you don’t have any experience….” He looked around the room, pausing to consider the desk before reaching for the cup of water sitting on its surface. Crossing his legs, he held it between both hands. Emil held his breath, watching as he stared at the water gently rocking back and forth with the ship. Then Lalli closed his eyes, dropping them both in darkness.</p><p>And then he started to speak.</p><p>Emil couldn’t understand him. It sounded like Finnish, but it didn’t automatically translate like it should. It also sounded…different. Something almost seemed to tingle in his lungs with his words.</p><p>A warmth bloomed through his palms, inching through his hands, energy thrumming gently under his skin. His stomach fluttered. This felt more like real magic. He could imagine his hands glowing the same misty blue as his eyes. And if he focused….</p><p>It was like there were hands <em>over</em> his. The heat wasn’t in <em>his</em> hands; it came from somewhere else.</p><p>Lalli had finished talking at some point and opened their eyes. The water bubbled in a light boil, a plume of steam fogging up the rim of the glass.</p><p><em>Hot!</em> his brain shouted at him, and Emil flung the cup away in a panic, shaking his hands out as they watched it clatter, bounce, and roll, spilling water in an arc over the floor. He held up his palms. They weren’t burned at all.</p><p>“Well.” Lalli took back control and flexed their hands. “Looks like you found what to look for.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>There might be one more solid chapter to this, maybe. With this format, it could keep going indefinitely, like if I think of a new joke or if something happens in SSSS down the line that inspires more, since it's really just a string of gags. Who knows. But I think I'll write up what I have planned right now all in the next chapter and mark the fic complete then. But like. A soft complete.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>oops, it's been eight months</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Lalli.”</p>
<p>Terse. What could have Emil so annoyed in the middle of the night?</p>
<p>Lalli pried his eyes open. The underside of his cot was a pale shape in the dark gray of the ward, illuminated only by the low lights lining the walkways. He could see the legs of a figure standing in the adjacent cell, closer to the glass than Lalli thought necessary. He tilted his head, looking around the cot at Emil’s crossed arms, up to his stiff frown, to his glow<em>ing eyes—</em></p>
<p>He kicked off the wall and rolled out into the open into a kneel as he threw out his hands, trying to clear his mind and piece together the exorcism he had prepared. The being knew his name. It had Emil’s memories. Emil might be a goner already. In that case, he should just kill it. But how could he be sure that Emil wasn’t still in there?</p>
<p>Emil’s body didn’t flinch. In fact, it clicked its tongue and looked…disappointed?</p>
<p>Wait a minute.</p>
<p>He knew this presence.</p>
<p>Lalli rose to his feet and asked, “Onni?”</p>
<p>“So this is what you’ve been up to, huh.”</p>
<p>And perfect Finnish? That’s Onni. “What are you doing here?” he asked, lowering his arms.</p>
<p>“What’s with you possessing this kid?”</p>
<p>“Where did you hear—” Lalli stopped. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Reynir.”</p>
<p>“He’s been wandering around, complaining to that dog of his about not being able to figure out how you did ‘that possession thing.’ He must be dumber than I thought; it wasn’t hard at all to find this guy’s dream.” Onni glanced down at his current self before shifting and readjusting his shoulders. He tried to look stern, looking down his nose condescendingly, but now that they were the same height, it wasn’t as effective. “He couldn’t even put up a fight. He’s hopeless.”</p>
<p>“I know, I know—”</p>
<p>“His hubris needs to be taken down a peg if he thinks that, just because he survived one godforsaken expedition, he should mess with the powers that be.”</p>
<p>“It’s not like that—”</p>
<p>“I’m cutting him off from the outside world right now to instill the fear of the gods in him.”</p>
<p>“Onni, listen.” Lalli thumped his hands onto his cot and leveled a look at Onni; he tried not to wrinkle his nose at the image of Emil before him. Emil should look pouty and ‘fancy Swede’ grumpy. Not so…real. “Listen,” he repeated. “I had to. I got separated from my body and had to anchor myself in his head for a while, and that was enough to make him a medium.”</p>
<p>“But he’s not a mage.”</p>
<p>“No, he’s not. That’s the problem. But I’m trying to train him, and I think it’s working. He’s starting to resist possession. Onni, he can channel magic. The gods recognize me through him.”</p>
<p>Onni’s eyes widened, and the incandescent blue in Emil’s pupils flared. He looked at his hands. Then he backed up to lean against Emil’s cot. “Start at the beginning.”</p><hr/>
<p>Onni hummed. With his eyes closed, sitting on the cot with his arms and legs crossed, Lalli could almost believe it was Emil in front of him. Almost. His expression was wrong. Too obviously his cousin.</p>
<p>Onni hummed again and pursed his lips. He half opened his eyes, dusting his bangs and cheekbones in a faint blue glow. “…Alright, fine. It’s troublesome, but it’s better than being dead.”</p>
<p>“That’s what I keep saying,” Lalli grumbled.</p>
<p>“Troublesome for <em>him,</em>” he clarified, jabbing a thumb toward his chest. “It’s not <em>your</em> problem, Lalli. I don’t think it’s something he even has a hope of fixing, so no sense wasting your time trying to protect him. He should move to the middle of Iceland, keep away from spiritual hotspots, and just hope for the best.”</p>
<p>Lalli had considered that. All those thoughts had definitely run through his head before. Emil’s best bet was to simply avoid spirits at all costs. But that wouldn’t stop spirits from going to him. And the guy can’t even <em>see</em> them. The thought of Lalli ditching him the moment he stepped off the boat and going back to his life like the expedition never happened….</p>
<p>He watched Onni scratch at Emil’s collar and blow his bangs out of the way, and his fists balled at his sides. “I can’t,” he stated.</p>
<p>Emil’s head dipped in a curt nod. “Good. Glad you recognize a lost cause when you see one—”</p>
<p>“I can’t <em>leave</em> him.” He stared at Emil’s not-Emil eyes and felt a rock sink to the pit of his stomach. “He was stranded, alone, with no food and a time limit, and he didn’t even know if I was alive. He should’ve prioritized his own chances and left me behind, but he still dragged my body for days. I can’t ignore a friend like that.”</p>
<p>“Ah right, so <em>this</em> is the friend you mentioned….” His cousin rolled a lock of Emil’s hair between Emil’s fingers.</p>
<p>Lalli couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Emil frown so much. He grimaced. “It hasn’t even been a month. I’ll try what I can and reevaluate later. Now can we get some sleep?”</p>
<p>Onni leveled a look his way, Emil’s brow heavy. His fingers still twirled his hair. Then he sighed, crossed his arms, and tucked his chin on his chest, bangs curtaining his face.</p>
<p>After a few moments, Emil’s shoulders drooped. His head dipped to the side before he caught himself with a jolt, glancing around with bleary, unilluminated eyes. Once he spotted Lalli watching him, he muttered something that sounded like a question and yawned, rubbing an eye with the back of his hand.</p>
<p>Lalli felt some tension ease from his own shoulders. He wondered why that was. It wasn’t like they were in any danger. It was just Onni. With another mage around, they were actually safer than ever. But Emil shouldn’t speak Finnish. He should stick to Swedish like he was doing now, rambling as he fixed his hair and watched Lalli stand in the middle of his dim cell in the dead of night.</p>
<p>Lalli heard his name and the intonation of a question, and a ghost of a smile escaped him even as he huffed and said, “How many times is it going to take before you remember the language thing?”</p>
<p>Emil laughed and scratched at his cheek. He began to sheepishly add to his rambling before he choked mid-sentence and stumbled back a step. The glow sparking up in his eyes again, he looked at Lalli with mild concern, eyebrows raised, nose wrinkled. “You’re sure? <em>This</em> guy? Really?”</p>
<p>“Good night, Onni.”</p>
<p>“Alright, alright….” He blinked the light away, and Emil gasped for air, his feet slipping out from under him as he scrambled to get a grip on his cot to keep himself upright. Lalli probably heard his and his cousin’s names somewhere within the wide-eyed, rapid-fire Swedish, but he didn’t even bother trying to listen and settled himself on the floor to go back to sleep.</p><hr/>
<p>"Hey, Mikkel?"</p>
<p>"Mm?"</p>
<p>"Any idea what the kids are up to now?"</p>
<p>"It seems to be Emil's medium training."</p>
<p>Sigrun rested her chin on the spine of the book standing open on her desk, looking past Mikkel. Emil was lying on his back on his cot, arms by his sides, perfectly still. The only way to tell he wasn't sleeping was his half-lidded stare at the ceiling; Sigrun refused to even consider that Emil might be able to sleep like a board with his eyes open. Occasionally he blinked.</p>
<p>Lalli was nowhere to be seen, at least not from her vantage point. Although perhaps that was the wrong way to word it. She couldn't clearly see Emil’s eyes, and in the ship’s lighting, any glow wouldn't visibly diffuse through the room, but when he opened his mouth and spoke to no one, she couldn't understand a single word he said.</p>
<p>She let out a low whistle. "Man, that's weird," she said, knowing Mikkel was watching the same scene. "Emil couldn't keep that still if I knocked him out. Our little Swede was the last person I'd expect to get roped into mage stuff."</p>
<p>From his desk chair, holding an open book in his lap, Mikkel raised an eyebrow.</p>
<p>She waved a hand. "Okay, yeah, no, he's done nothing but hang out with a mage this whole mission, of course he'd get roped in. I just didn't expect anyone to be getting possessed on my team."</p>
<p>“Mm.” Mikkel nodded.</p>
<p>So much for conversation. Although, thinking about it, she wasn't sure how deep she actually wanted a conversation on spiritual possession to go. She sighed more loudly than necessary and glanced behind her. Reynir usually watched whatever medium stuff Emil and Lalli did with enthusiasm, but he was curled up napping at the moment. Lucky kid. If only she could pass the time by simply not being conscious.</p>
<p>More Finnish spoken with the wrong voice brought her attention back. Sigrun sighed again and flicked her book closed, toppling it onto the table with a light thump. In the quiet of the afternoon, it was loud enough that Emil's eyes sought out the source of the disturbance, giving her the clear view of illuminated pupils that she was missing before. They looked to her next, holding the indifference of a stranger in a strange land currently with nothing to gain from others, but they returned to the ceiling a beat later. More Finnish.</p>
<p>"You never considered learning Finnish?" asked Sigrun.</p>
<p>Mikkel shrugged. "I considered it, but there were more useful things to learn at the time."</p>
<p>"Like what?"</p>
<p>"Embroidery."</p>
<p>"Embroidery?!"</p>
<p>"Does wonders for nerves and morale."</p>
<p>Sigrun snorted a laugh and leaned forward, fully ready to fall into a more normal conversation of companionable ribbing, but then she heard a surprised yelp and saw Emil's hands frantically reach for the air above him for a split second before falling back onto his midriff, eyes closed.</p>
<p>She felt Mikkel also holding his breath as they watched whoever was in that body now, waiting for signs of life.</p>
<p>It was only a handful of seconds before Emil's body breathed in deeply and blinked awake. Sitting up and flexing its hands in its lap, a smile broke out over its face before Emil threw his fists in the air and cheered, "Yes! Finally! Lalli, did you see that?!"</p>
<p>Lalli peeked over his cot, rubbing sleep from his eyes with one arm and giving a thumbs up with the other.</p>
<p>Emil giggled to himself as he wiggled his fingers and buzzed with energy, and Sigrun snickered, relieved. "You solve your ghost problem, Blondie?" she asked.</p>
<p>He gave her a blinding grin. "I finally figured out how to throw Lalli out of my head! It's not a preventative solution, but now if—" He shuddered, a full-body rattling that cut him off. The smile went slack, and the neon in his eyes blinked back on. Sigrun decided she was <em>not</em> a fan of that, then decided she was <em>incredibly</em> not a fan of that when she saw Lalli jump to his feet and curse under his breath.</p>
<p>Not-Emil grinned again—tested his hands again—vibrated excitedly again, but this time, his shout of success wasn't in any language Sigrun could understand, and for a moment, she felt pure dread.</p>
<p>But then Mikkel asked something in Icelandic, and Not-Emil excitedly responded and waved, and Mikkel's grip on his book relaxed. "Mikkel...?" she asked.</p>
<p>He nodded behind him, toward the last member of their party. "Looks like Emil wasn't the only one learning something new."</p>
<p>Her eyes widened. "He didn't...," she started, but then she saw Not-Emil point at himself and merrily declare himself to be Reynir as Lalli banged on the wall between them, eye twitching, and she said, "Oh, gods, he did."</p>
<p>Reynir hopped off the bed, clasping Emil's hands behind his back and looking himself over. Lalli snapped at him and hit the wall again, but Reynir just laughed and rocked back on his feet, chattering away. While no longer a threatening situation, that didn’t stop it from being downright <em>unnatural</em> and <em>unsettling</em>.</p>
<p>"Anything happening?" she asked Mikkel.</p>
<p>"He's calling Emil short."</p>
<p>"Ah. Yeah, that tracks." She shook her head. "These kids are going to give me a heart attack. Did we not raise them right?”</p>
<p>"They're twenty; they're liable for their own mischief by now."</p>
<p>Fluffing up Emil’s hair, Reynir spun around to face them, but he cut himself off when he tripped over his feet and threw out an arm to steady himself. His other hand braced on his knee as he hunched over, catching his breath like he had been winded. “That scared me half to death!” he wheezed. “Reynir, you harebrained stowaway, what the heck was that for?! For the love of—!”</p>
<p>Sigrun snickered, evolving into a full laugh when Lalli ran his hands down his face and sat on the floor as Emil continued piling on curses.</p>
<p>Behind her, Reynir’s body rolled over to face the rest of the team and sleepily waved. “Sorry, Emil!” he called in Swedish, the smile on his face not looking sorry at all.</p>
<p>Emil glared at him and jabbed a finger on the glass. “Don’t you sneak away, you two-bit mage, get back in here so you understand me! <em>Reynir!</em>”</p>
<p>He continued shouting at a giggling Reynir as one of the crewmembers stopped her laundry cart between the cells. “Everything’s fine, yes?” she asked Mikkel.</p>
<p>He nodded. “Just peachy. Don’t mind them.”</p>
<p>“Quarantine can get the best of the best of us,” she imparted with a shrug and rolled away.</p>
<p>“Mikkel! Mikkel, help!” Emil knocked on the glass with a pout. “Please tell Reynir to go back to my dream so I can tell him off properly!”</p>
<p>At the same time, Reynir sat up and hugged his knees, also asking Mikkel for something, but Emil drowned him out shouting, “Hey, hey, what was that? I better not have heard that right! Mikkel, what’d he say?!”</p>
<p>Mikkel closed his book and ignored them, but he turned to let Sigrun see a small amused smile. “I’m going to take a shower,” he informed her. “Knock on the wall when dinner’s here, please.”</p>
<p>Sigrun saluted and laughed, the boys’ mutually unintelligible rally continuing around her.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>If more ideas come to me, I might add another chapter, but for now <strike>this gets the ol' checkmark so it doesn't get caught in the perpetuality of incompleteness that plagues my work.</strike> well, forget that, leaving it here just will not do. This is where I planned to end it at first but now, no no no, back to incomplete, future is endless, possibility is ever-present and ever-expanding, let's go</p>
<p>(also turns out America did make their own Kamen Rider series in 1995 and then again in 2008 and oh golly gee it is exactly what I expected for the eras oh no they can keep their Power Rangers, I'm so sorry Kamen Rider)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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